By Teagan Greer
Good Days Cafe recently opened near the University of Nevada, Reno, serving coffee and meals that make students crave more.
The cafe is run by co-owners Ailey Asulin and Derek Sornson, who have also been managing Dubs Sports Lounge in Reno for over a year. Good Days Cafe is the second property they own.
Asulin and Sornson are alumni of UNR, and they started bartending and working in restaurants while they were attending school. They first opened Dubs Sports Lounge in April 2024.
“It’s a whole new ball game when it comes to coffee and matchas and teas,” said Asulin.
This cafe is a full-day cafe, open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
“We knew we wanted to make sure that if you were up for a late-night study session, you can get food from us. You can come and hang out. It was a relaxed kind of atmosphere,” said Asulin.
Good Days Cafe is open to those who need a place to cram for finals, have a study area for friends, or simply have a cup of coffee and relax.
Not only does this cafe have their beans roasted by Midnight Coffee roasters (a local Reno cafe and coffee roast distributor), but they also have a unique way of serving coffee through their “Canned Coffee Program.” This puts a lid on the customers drink for them to pop open later like a soda can.
“We knew that we needed something that was unique and different,” said Asulin in reference to the canned coffee.
Sornson found the concept of the canned coffee maker on social media in a cafe in Australia. He then found an affordable canned coffee maker online for Good Days Cafe. Drinks sold as a canned coffee include the strawberry matcha latte, caramel banana latte and honey lavender latte. They wanted to give students something to carry around campus.
They also serve their evening specialty cocktails using soju since they have a beer and wine license, but not a liquor license.
After a rocky first few days in which the cafe had trouble with their sink plumbing, they rescheduled their Grand Opening Weekend for Oct. 24-25 instead.
Good Days Cafe used a unique way to market to their target audience of college students: putting up flyers around UNR’s campus reading “Ladies, do not date this man! He is a cheater!!!” with a QR code attached to it.
Instead of leading to gossip, the QR code redirected pedestrians to the cafe’s Instagram.
“The brand is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be relaxed, and you’re supposed to feel like you’re having a good day when you come visit Good Days Cafe,” Asulin said about the flyer. “I don’t think Derek or I take ourselves too seriously at all, and so, we felt like the marketing shouldn’t take itself too seriously either.”
Some of Good Days’ crowd favorites are breakfast burritos and sandwiches for the morning crowd and afternoon pastas such as vodka pasta and carbonara.
Good Days has also partnered with the sorority Delta Gamma on a limited time blueberry matcha latte. Part of the proceeds will be donated back to the sorority’s philanthropy effort which “provides access and advocacy for people in the blind and visually impaired community,” according to Delta Gamma. The partnership runs from Nov.17 to Dec.17.
Good Days Cafe also intends to hold future events in the upcoming spring semester. “We really want to be a staple in this community,” said Asulin.
